


Alterations and Convergence

by orphan_account



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Smut, PWP, au where peridot is a completely redeemed crystal gem, except tbqh idk if i can call it a pwp there's a lot of plot-driven fluff too, pearl and peridot are gay like literally so fucking gay, peridot's limb enhancer fingers are v good at multitasking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-27 00:21:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5026426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pearl and Peridot were supposed to be fixing the TV. Emotions shimmer and smolder and detonate in their faces. </p><p>Steven ends up spending the rest of the night without his television.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alterations and Convergence

It certainly isn't the first time Pearl has noticed such a thing. It is why when she zones out and she is half-aware of Amethyst muttering "There she goes again, probably daydreaming about how Peridot's jumpsuit accentuates her body or some shit," she doesn't even have the willpower to chastise her because, well. She isn't  _wrong._

It's been around a month since Peridot has become a patented Crystal Gem, rewarded with a new set of limb enhancers that she and the others (mostly Pearl) had helped build. It's been around a month and Pearl has yet to learn how to self-sanitize herself of the green-tinted, unwanted emotions that are starting to pervade every thought in her mind.

"Uh, Pearl?" Steven calls from upstairs. "Peridot got frustrated and broke the TV again."

"I did  _not!_ " Pearl hears Peridot protest stubbornly. "It - It did that on its own! I didn't touch it!"

A mastermind seductress,  _truly._

"Whatever has just happened does not concern me," Pearl says. "I've fixed the television the last five times she's broken it. And I'm not even the one who has an entire mountain of machine guts to work with."

"I need those for stuff," Peridot says as she descends the staircase, with metal footsteps that resonate through the room. "I'm not gonna waste them on some lousy human-made pixel arranger." She stands before her, arms crossed, clearly fishing for an argument; she takes some sort of joy from messing with Pearl at every opportunity she has and it's irritating, yes, but not irritating enough to cancel out the heat that sparks in Pearl's artificial blood at the mere sight of her. Her jumpsuit  _does_ accentuate her body, and the added height the limb enhancers grant her compliment her natural hourglass shape well: the flare of her hips, the noticeable but not prominent swell of her breasts, the curves of her - Pearl sucks in a sharp breath and straightens her posture, drawing herself out of the thought.

"What sort of stuff?" she asks.

Peridot smirks. "Wanna come see?" It's a terrible line if she's ever heard one, and yet Pearl's imagination kickstarts into overdrive, and oh,  _stars,_ when did she descend this far? There's hardly anything alluring about Peridot, if you put her body aside; she is cynical and abrasive and self-centered, with bouts of being loud and obnoxious and prone to temper tantrums. Pearl had punched her in the face all that time ago for a reason.

But then, she's so much more, too; so much more multi-faceted than the clumsy, irritating antagonist Pearl had gotten to know her as before. It's written in her increasingly frequent, increasingly sincere acts of kindness. How admittedly cute she is when scowling as she tries to figure out human machines. How, just last week, Pearl had walked outside to de-stress and found Peridot there instead, staring up at the stars, murmuring a broken  _"I can never go home,_ " to herself. Pearl had approached her, sympathetic, understanding, welcoming, and Peridot had clutched onto her and cried and they had stayed like that until the sun bled orange light into the early morning.

Perhaps that's the moment where things took off. Or perhaps it had been going on far, far before that, from the moment Pearl had knelt before her and fixed the upside-down drill in her hands.

"Alright," Pearl says. "I want to see."

Peridot's smug expression falters. "Wait, really?"

Pearl smiles her own beguiling smile; she normally doesn't sync with Peridot's attempted flirtations, frightened by what they might lead into, but one time can't hurt, right? "Sure," she says coolly, "since you're always so set on proving yourself higher than me. I'm curious as to what you've been working on, if you're so impressive." The statement is more playful than anything else, a teasing allusion to the past, but Peridot's cheeks flare a bright shade of green all the same, sending a spritz of affection through Pearl in turn:  _character development._

"I'm still very apologetic about that," Peridot says, and the sincerity of the words spear Pearl's heart like bolt of lightning. She has changed so much and Pearl can't admit to herself that maybe,  _maybe,_ she's falling a little bit in love with her. A lot in love with her, even. "I - I had no  _idea_ that Homeworld ideologies were so messed up, and I was raised there, and -"

"It's alright, Peridot," Pearl intervenes. "I've forgiven you, remember?

Something melts in Peridot's eyes. "Yes," she says. "I do."

Amethyst clears her throat. "Hey, can you guys go in her room already, because, like, Steven's right here, and..."

Peridot's blush intensifies, Pearl formulates her own, and Steven tilts his head at Amethyst confusedly.

"Right," Pearl says, as Peridot swiftly turns away from her and raises the broken television set with a tractor beam that she emits from her arm, "we should be making new parts to fix the TV. Because I'll help you. Because I have a feeling you're only going to confuse yourself over human machinery."

"And the parts required to do that are in my room," Peridot reaffirms.

"Maybe you two should be making a few other things, too," Amethyst mutters under her breath, and Pearl glares at her sharply as Peridot opens the door to her room and steps into it. Pearl follows her inside.

Really, this is Sapphire's old room, but Garnet had granted it to her, saying that she can manage with only Ruby's. Peridot had spent well over a week studying the temple door and then engineering Sapphire's door to sync with her gem, and then two weeks after that locking herself in there and redesigning the place to make herself more comfortable. Steven has spray-painted the blue gemstone on the temple's door with green, with a crudely-drawn smiling Peridot scribbled onto it in Sharpie. They had offered to clean the drawing off, but Peridot had refused.

The room is relatively simple because it's new, and Pearl can tell that Peridot isn't quite finished with it. It is composed of a green (shocking) and black grid patterning the floor and walls; Pearl looks up and finds that the ceiling is seemingly endless, a mass of matrices that expand upwards forever. The room is dully lit and...completely empty.

"Where are all of your things?" Pearl asks confusedly.

"I'm getting to that," Peridot replies, glancing at Pearl over her shoulder. She stills, holding one arm out, and a chrome pedestal rises from the floor; Peridot presses her fingers to its surface and something else rises from the floor as well: a mountain of metal and wire and circuit boards and chunks of mystery metallic objects. Pearl blinks at it in astonishment. She'd known that Peridot had made a recent habit of visiting the junk yard to collect spare machine parts, but she hadn't known that she'd managed to amass  _this_ much.

"What...are you planning on doing with all this?" Pearl asks. She does see a lot of potential in the hoard; she can easily see the appeal such a menagerie could have to Peridot.

"I'm not sure yet," Peridot replies. "It's something to keep me occupied, though. With the Cluster gone, I've found myself very un-stimulated."

"I thought you said you were working on something."

Peridot shrugs carelessly. "'Working' is a relative term."

Pearl watches as Peridot reaches into the pile of machinery and yanks out a circuit board. "I kind of decimated the ballast," she says, "but I think if we re-work this thing, it could function well as a replacement."

"Peridot?" Pearl asks.

"Hm?" Peridot responds as she tosses the ballast-to-be aside and continues to dig around in her pile of machine entrails.

"Why did you do it?" They're only in here to fix a television, she knows, but this room is messing with her. The very existence of this room is a direct result of something that's been messing with her.

"Listen, it's not my fault that I am unfamiliar with human constructions and get frustrated easily -"

"I'm talking about the star on your chest, Peridot."

Peridot stills. "Oh. Yes. That."

She stands fully upright. She turns around to face her.

"Steven says I did it because of 'love.'" Every nerve in Pearl's body stands on end. "I was unfamiliar with the word, but that's what he diagnosed me with, and I trust him."

"Oh," Pearl says. "But...we already do have a concept of love on Homeworld, don't we? Or has it really changed that much?"

Peridot's cheeks dust with bright green. "We do," she says. "But, as I said, I was unfamiliar with it."

"And now?"

Peridot gives her this look, this - this weak smile, her eyes softening in a way that is so rare and Pearl adores it so much. "Less unfamiliar."

Pearl's expression melts into a smile. "Good," she says softly, "because I'm thinking that I've learned a thing or two recently as well."

Peridot makes a face at her, abruptly switching off her molten expression from before, and loudly says, "What? Haven't you been having experience with this whole 'love' business for the past 5,500 years?" which effectively wrecks the mood and innuendo Pearl had been trying to build, but she can't say she's surprised, really.

"Well - yes," Pearl says, mind churning to come up with ways to simplify what she's trying to imply without actually coming out and saying it, "but in lieu of recent happenings, I've found that there were several..." she makes a vague gesticulation as she searches for the word she wants to use, "... _g_ _aps_ in my knowledge." There is a difference between her love for Peridot and her love for Rose. The difference is  _"My pearl"_ and Peridot's constant shame for the way she used to look at her.

"Gaps like what?" Peridot asks, and Pearl inhales deeply to prevent herself from getting frustrated at Peridot's density.

 _What are you doing?_ Pearl asks herself.  _What are you doing, you can't do this, you can't do this, what about Rose -_

"You should know; you're discovering them yourself."  _No no no no, stop this,_

"I...am?" Peridot says, squinting one eye, looking completely lost now, like the time Pearl had tried to discuss astrophysics with Steven. "Can you explain further?"

(Peridot was the one who initiated the flirting, and yet,)

Pearl knows that Peridot is interested in her; Peridot tries to hide it but she's awful, written in the way she dumbfoundedly examines Pearl's body when Pearl dances, the undignified noises of surprise she makes when Pearl walks past her and their arms brush, the way Garnet had been lecturing her about fusion some time back and Peridot had glanced at Pearl and then stared wide-eyed at the ground in embarrassment, as if webbing out shame-worthy fantasies in her mind.

Pearl knows that Peridot is into her and she knows that she is into Peridot and yet she...

She doesn't know. She doesn't  _know._ It's so different than it was with Rose, as if there are isotopes of love; this is pure and it is sweet and it fills her fake lungs with sugar rather than injecting her heart with sharp, sick ache -

She watches some calculation solve itself in Peridot's eyes before Pearl can come up with a response to her question.

And then Peridot swiftly steps forward, skims her fingers up Pearl's arm. And she kisses her.

* * *

 

Peridot kisses her. She is unsure why she does this and she immediately regrets it.

But Pearl had been standing there, so luminarily beautiful, not because she was doing anything special but because she is always beautiful. Her words had clicked, and why hadn't Peridot realized it earlier _,_ why is everything on this planet so  _complicated;_ she is in love with Pearl  _she is so so in love with her_  and the thought had dipped every photon of light making up her body in kerosene and then struck a match, swallowing her in a green-white blaze, that feeling you get when you walk outside just after it's rained and you feel like breathing is impossible because the air is so wet and so heavy.

She had been clutching onto the edge of this cliff for a while. All she needed was the romantic undertone (Peridot still doesn't completely know what Pearl had been talking about, Pearl is too wise for her, but the purposeful allure in Pearl's voice made her knees weak) in Pearl's dialogue to peel her fingers off the ledge. She knew that she was attracted to Pearl, yes. But love...it was different than how she loves Steven, and so she was perplexed by it. And then one day she listens to Garnet talk about Ruby and Sapphire's love and she feels like she wants to throw up. Because she is still learning about the complexity of her emotions but she at the very least knows how to identify envy.

And now she is thinking that maybe,  _maybe,_ Pearl has been feeling the same way. And now Pearl's lips are pressed against hers.

It lasts maybe two seconds, just enough time for Pearl to stiffen and for Peridot to hate herself for everything with the way she goes mannequin under Peridot's metal fingers. Peridot parts from her, flings herself away from her, and she feels her metal limbs flare so hotly she half-expects them to glow with incandescence, scalding the actual skin inside them. "Oh, my stars, Pearl, I-I, uh, I -  _fuck,_ I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I just -"

Pearl is staring with enlarged, owlish eyes at the floor. She touches two fingers to her lips. Peridot swallows heavily, her heart thundering in her chest, her skin moistening, her body trembling with regret and humiliation. "Pearl," she says again, "I'm sorry, please don't -" It feels like her chest is burning with a million tiny candles, some of them soft and burnt orange at the memory of Pearl's skin under her fingers, her soft, velvet lips on hers; the others are an agitated red and destructive in their flames, because Pearl isn't reciprocating. At all. Peridot has done everything wrong. "Please don't - hate me?"

"Peridot," Pearl whispers, still shell-shocked, and it does nothing to buffer Peridot's quailing when she refuses to look up. Pearl's hand falls from her lips. "You..."

Peridot's breathing is shallow and erratic, and one of her fingers involuntarily twitches and zips six feet from the flat metal plating at the end of her arm. "Yes?" she says, like her voice is high on helium, and she reels the malfunctioning finger back to her as she stares fearfully at Pearl and wishes she would  _speak_ instead of just staring at the floor like that with shrunken pupils.

But it's worse when Pearl  _does_ establish eye contact, Peridot finds, and she shuffles a few feet back in shame, her chest simmering.

"You lied," Pearl says with a watery smile, and something pools in her eyes that Peridot can't discern. "You did know what I was talking about."

"I-I - what?"

Pearl advances towards her, her eyes glazed over with something, so graceful in every movement it's as if she's manifested of those sunset clouds that look like they're woven of silk.

"The star on your chest," Pearl mentions for the second time, and she traces it with one long, dexterous finger, causing Peridot's body to pump itself with a flurry of pulse and nerves; she has no idea what's happening, what is Pearl doing, her actions are not coinciding with her lack of reciprocation and Peridot cannot come up with an equation to figure out why and it  _scares her._ "You act as though you are still confused about love." The ghostly pale hand trails from Peridot's breast to her neck, fingertips grazing the skin and leaving trails of buzzing electricity in their wake; Pearl's palm is on her cheek now, fingers framing her face. She moves like sentient elegance but Peridot dares to look at her face and she is created to take note of minute details and so she notices it: the way Pearl's lips tremble, eyes reflecting fright and trepidation along with the green lights of the room. "You're not, though. You know exactly what it is. And, as evidenced by how your body is quivering before me, you've learned how to categorize it, too."

"Pearl?" Peridot says, scared but excited; she no longer bothers to think about if Pearl has feelings for her as well, her confusion evaporating into Pearl's hand.

Pearl closes the distance between their torsos, her thumb gently running across Peridot's jawline. She tilts her head and draws closer, the space between them becoming a maddening magnetic field, and her eyes are half-lidded as she flicks them up to meet Peridot's gaze.

"May I?" she murmurs.

Peridot can only exhale a "Yes," squeeze her eyes shut, and melt into her.

It's so much better.

Pearl is slow and gentle when she moves her lips against hers, easing her into it; Peridot tries to harmonize with her but she flounders, too flustered and shaky and sloppy, but Pearl doesn't mind. Pearl's got her and she isn't leaving her. Pearl is not Homeworld.

Pearl's fingers slide into Peridot's hair, and Peridot presses her fingers against the small of Pearl's back, squeezing their bodies flush together. She's starting to get the hang of it now, how kissing is, essentially, the same as dancing; their lips eb and then flow back together, Pearl moves her head this way so Peridot makes the inverse movement, and nose physics detriment things slightly but the merits of working around that are beyond worth it. Let one set of fingers scale up Pearl's back, linger at the nape of her neck then slide down again; let the other set of fingers glide along the contour of Pearl's torso, back and forth; brush her tongue across Pearl's bottom lip when Pearl opens her mouth to kiss harder and then the upper lip when she does it again; communicate the swarm of blissed-out scintillas fireworking in her body by making soft, flustered noises into her.  _One, two, three, four; one, two, three four._ Just like a dance, just like when Pearl had taught her to dance two weeks ago.

They don't need to breathe, not really, but it's a force of habit now, and Peridot cleaves from her to pant gallons of oxygen. Pearl, not missing a beat, merely smiles at her and her lips travel down to Peridot's neck, licking the skin there and nipping softly before going down, down, taking Peridot's shoulder strap and pulling it down so she can suck at where Peridot's neck meets her shoulder. Peridot chokes out Pearl's name, the wetness of Pearl's mouth clashing against the sensitivity of her skin there in an unwinding bundle of ecstasy. Something constricts uncomfortably in between Peridot's thighs and then unravels in a fuzz of messy heat and with the newly sparked arousal comes an involuntary gasp of  _"I love you."_

Pearl's lips still against the curve of Peridot's neck. She opens one eye to glance up at her and says, "You think I don't know that?"

"What?" Peridot pants.

"You're not very good at being subtle." Pearl kisses the crook of Peridot's neck, chaste this time, but it does nothing to cool the lava pulsing both in her heart and in between her legs. "For the record, neither am I, I suppose." Another sweet kiss, just above where her lips had been a moment ago. "And so, I feel as though it's obvious that I love you, too."

Peridot's fingers are entangled in the back of Pearl's hair, and now they tighten, elation blitzing through her. "You...do?"

"I do," Pearl says softly, nuzzling into the curve of Peridot's neck and then setting back to work at making Peridot melt like ice in summer sunlight. "I denied it to myself for so long, but...oh, Peridot. You're wonderful."

 _Wonderful._ Wonderful. Pearl thinks that she is wonderful.

"Yes," Peridot says, "well. I think you're wonderful as well." She feels Pearl smile into her skin.

"Hey - Pearl?" Peridot says. Pearl detaches from her neck to form eye contact. "You're very good at this." Too good, almost.

Pearl tilts her head and arches one eyebrow. "...Thank you?"

"No," Peridot says, "I mean...you've never done this before? Are you sure?"

"Oh," Pearl laughs, "yes, um. I haven't done it, but I..." The dark teal stains on her cheeks expand. "I've referenced several sources." Her eyes flicker upwards, unfocusing, her mouth straightening. "Including holographic projections of you," she says flatly.

Peridot's eyes widen. "Oh. Uh. Okay." She ignores the corner of her mind that says  _Why did I never think of doing that?_  Having a projection of Pearl would have made all her past experimentations with herself far, far easier. Orgasms would have been far, far easier to achieve.

"Speaking of which," Pearl says, her blush still intensive, "I know Amethyst taught you to shapeshift, but how far did you actually end up..." She swallows and clears her throat. "How much of the human body did you decide to emulate?"

Peridot stares at her, wondering for a moment why Pearl would ask such an irrelevant question, and then it hits her. "Are you asking me if I have a -"

"Yes," Pearl interrupts quickly, refusing to meet Peridot's gaze.

"I...do, actually," Peridot replies, then bites her lip as she decides if she truly wants to go for it and say the words she wants to say.

Because she does want it.

She wants it so badly.

She goes for it: "It's making itself very known right now, actually."

Pearl's eyes widen in awed astonishment. "Because of - because of me?"

Peridot looks at her incredulously. "What else? There is nothing within my current radius, besides you, that has the capability of arousing me."

"Ah," Pearl says weakly, "I see. And how long have you known that I have the capability of...?"

"Doing that to me? Long enough to be very, very familiar with that part of me," Peridot replies, taking her inhibitions and flattening them because she adores the way the words make Pearl's hair dishevel itself, the shocked, love-struck look on her face, the way every inch of her skin is flushed turquoise. She would gladly kneel before her and list off every way that Pearl motivates Peridot to put her own fingers between her legs if it meant seeing Pearl this flustered for longer.

"I can't believe this is happening," Pearl says with a humorless, half-hysterical laugh. "I can't believe you're standing in front of me telling me that you've thought of me in unsavory ways and I'm not panicking."

"I can't believe I'm standing in front of you telling you that I've thought of you in unsavory ways either, so that's fair." Something occurs to her. "Wait. 'Panicking'?"

Pearl idly threads her fingers through Peridot's hair. "It's been a very long time since I've felt this way," she murmurs, "but it's...different. So different."

"Different how?"

Pearl's eyes unfocus again, and she smiles a bittersweet smile at something in the distance. "I lived to die for Rose," she says, "but you...Oh, Peridot. I live to live beside you, if that makes any sense at all. I would if I had to, but I don't want to die; I want to exist alongside you." Her eyes are so bright, like the nebula of a birthing blue star. "Right now, for instance. Right now you're making me feel as though I'm actually worth something. The way you're looking at me alone is enough to..." She trails off, smiles, and shakes her head. "You see me as an equal, even if you didn't at first. I don't think Rose ever did. I never even thought of myself as an equal."

"I don't like Rose," Peridot says.

"I can understand that," Pearl replies.

"So...you're basically saying that you love me more, right?" Peridot asks, and Pearl just laughs and kisses her in response.

"Oh!" Pearl exclaims suddenly, as she removes herself from Peridot's mouth and claps her hands together. "We were going to lead into having sex now, weren't we?" At Peridot's heart-attack expression, she quickly continues with, "O-Only if you're all right with that, of course, I didn't mean to simply assume that you talking about how much you want to fuck me was going to entail you actually fucking me," Pearl laughs, and a very undignified whimpering sound crawls its way out of Peridot's throat at Pearl's explicit wording and the mental images it sparks.

"I'm all right with it," she chokes out, cheeks enflamed. "I am very, very all right with it." The discussion about Rose had dulled her arousal, but it's back at full force, now that she's imagining Pearl's body quivering underneath her, the expressions she'll make, if her body will arch up into her when she reaches her limit or if she'll cave in on herself, Peridot's name on her lips -

"That works out nicely, then," Pearl says, eyes shimmering in flirtation as she loops her arms around Peridot's neck; Peridot, who is staring at her with wonderment in her widened eyes, because this is happening, oh,  _stars,_ this is actually going to happen. Pearl - beautiful, awe-inspiring, perfectly imperfect Pearl - is actually going to let Peridot touch her like that, she's going to give herself over to her, to allow herself to be vulnerable like that to _Peridot_ of all gems.

Peridot nudges forward and presses her lips to Pearl's to get momentum flowing again, and Pearl's hands slide down to feel up Peridot's hips. Peridot bites gently at Pearl's bottom lip, fingers brushing over Pearl's hands. And her desire is blazing now, fueled by the way Peridot is thinking, starting to plan out all the things she wants to do to her, and kissing is not enough, it's  _not enough._

And so Peridot picks her up, and Pearl stops kissing her in surprise but doesn't object as Peridot kneels down and lays her on her back. Pearl adjusts herself as she tries to make herself comfortable, but she only frowns up at her and says, "The floor is a terrible place to do this. You don't have a...anything soft?"

It takes Peridot a moment to process what she's just said, so hazed over with lust and adoration is her mind that her cognitive skills are slowed significantly. "Oh," she says, "uh. No. I have no need for sleep, and thus I have nothing that would be convenient to rest on."

Pearl stares up at the ceiling, her facial expression suggesting that she can still think relatively clearly despite her flushed face and - well, Peridot is too nervous to look at her there, but if Pearl is feeling even a fraction of what Peridot's feeling, then she's soaked. "Amethyst probably has several soft things in her room."

Peridot's face contorts into a grimace. "I am not going to sleep with you in Amethyst's room, nor am I willing to face anyone besides you at the moment."

"Understandable," Pearl muses. "You don't know how form your own objects? This is your room, isn't it?"

"Oh," Peridot says. "Yes, it is. I almost forgot." She stares at a spot on the ground a few feet from them, eyes narrowing as she concentrates very hard. Lights forms there and rearranges itself into the vague shape of a bed, and then the concrete shape of a bed, one that's similar but not twin to Steven's, considering the fact that it's the only bed she's ever really seen in real life. She grins down at her. "Better?"

"Much," Pearl replies.

They begrudgingly peel themselves off each other to move onto the bed, and that  _is_ much better, Peridot will admit. She kisses Pearl's neck, and she knows what she wants to do next, she's already plotted it all out, but then the opportunity to actually do it comes and she -

Peridot freezes up. She is terrified. Terrified of the intensity of what's about to happen, terrified of the intimacy, terrified that she'll mess up somehow or not be as good at this as Pearl is hoping for.

She feels a hand settle on the back of her neck. "It's all right, Peridot," she says. "I've never done it before either, keep in mind. We're experiencing this for the first time together, right?" And she smiles sweetly at her now, warm and encouraging. "In fact - oh, here, let me help you," she says, and Peridot looks at her quizzically in response.

And then Pearl's gem blinks once with a flash of light. And her clothes dematerialize.

Peridot feels as though the wind has been knocked out of her.

She's even more beautiful like this, if such a thing is possible. Peridot has imagined her like this plenty of times before, sure, but nothing compares to the real thing; her body is thin but muscular and lithe, skin smooth and marble-white like porcelain, hair mussed, cheeks flushed, pale blue nipples hardened. Peridot glances in between Pearl's legs and then darts her gaze aside, something akin to embarrassment flaming in her.

Her body is the most beautiful thing Peridot has ever seen. She doesn't know where to start.

"...Peridot?" Pearl says with half a smile, her eyebrows knit together. "Are you all right?"

"I am completely fine," Peridot replies breathlessly, "I just -" She tries to cool the magma in her blood but she can't, not with Pearl sprawled out before her like this, so impossibly beautiful, "You are very, very...aesthetically pleasing."

"Oh," Pearl says, followed by an equally breathless laugh. "Well, I...Speak for yourself."

"Me?" Peridot says incredulously. "I'm not...Pearl, I'm not  _you."_

"I would hope not."

"No, I mean -" She growls in frustration and presses two fingers to her forehead. "You're perfect. Not perfect at all, actually, but you - you've done so much, and you're so amazing, and I honestly admire you so much for breaking free of the caste system with such grace and personal growth, and -"

"Peridot," Pearl interrupts, and Peridot obediently stops, gazing down at her with wide, distressed eyes. "Just kiss me. Please. If you won't listen to my words, then allow me to show you how incredible you are yourself."

"Okay," Peridot says, her voice cracking, "okay." And she bends her body down and she kisses her.

Pearl's hands start by settling on the nape of Peridot's neck as she puts her lips to work, and a thumb rubs soft, rhythmic circles into the skin there as the other slides down her back, then down further when they reach Peridot's hip. It slinks to the top of Peridot's thigh, then to the inside of her thigh, and then -

The touch, however light, sends Peridot burying her face into the curve of Pearl's neck, her skin incinerating with desire and a subspecies of embarrassment; her breathing flutters like a hummingbird's wingbeats as she involuntarily lifts up her hips so Pearl has better access.

"My, my," Pearl says smugly, but her smile is sweet as she rubs two fingers up and down the slicked fabric in between Peridot's legs, "what do we have here?"

"I don't know what you were expecting," Peridot mutters into her neck. "You can't possibly still be dry yourself."

"Oh, I'm not, believe me," Pearl replies easily, and Peridot's breath hitches in her throat when Pearl's fingers apply pressure just below her clit,  _teasing_ her, and Peridot is trembling as she bites her lip and gently, slowly, rubs herself against Pearl's fingers.

"H-How do I," Peridot stammers, "how do I do what you just did. With your..." She searches for the word. "Your clothes." Generally, when she does things to herself she just peels the jumpsuit off, but there's no time to do that here, and it would involve having to move so she could take it off properly, and -

"Just think about it and let your gem dissolve it," Pearl replies, closing her eyes and nosing into Peridot's hair, rubbing her in light circles but not where Peridot needs it.

"Just let my gem dissolve it," Peridot parrots, and concentrates, albeit that's hard to do when there's only a thin, soaked layer of fabric separating her cunt and Pearl's fingers.

She dilutes the desire to be as bare as Pearl into her gem and then something happens, light shimmering along her skin and then evaporating, leaving her skin cold with the air that hits it directly and her face naked when the visors dissolve from it.

Pearl removes her hand from in between Peridot's legs and Peridot has to keep herself from whining at the loss. "You're rather beautiful yourself, you know," Pearl says, her eyes adoringly scanning up Peridot's body, and Peridot gulps, hands trembling as she watches thoughts flare and subcede in Pearl's eyes. Pearl's hands settle on Peridot's hips and glide upwards, grazing across bare, sensitized skin, and Peridot shuts her eyes, chewing nervously on her bottom lip; stars, she's so vulnerable right now, she feels emotionally naked as well as physically, but she finds she isn't scared. Apprehensive, perhaps, or intimidated by the actions ahead of them. But frightened? No. She has no reason to be frightened of Pearl.

Pearl's fingers brush over Peridot's nipples, causing her to recoil initially at the sharp sensation but then ease when Pearl takes them each in between two fingers and squeezes, massaging her breasts as she does so, and Peridot shudders and she rocks her hips back and forth across the skin on Pearl's stomach, trying to gain pressure and friction on her clit, trying to soothe the almost painful throbbing that pulses just below it. She had wanted to get Pearl off first, but now, she isn't sure how much more she can wait.

"Pearl," she says. "Pearl, please touch me.  _Please._ "

"I thought we had moved past this servant thing," Pearl tsks. "A mere 'please' isn't going to convince me to take orders from you."

"Wha…" Peridot trails off, and now she's just confused again. "Is that how it came off?" Panic flares in her; she hadn't meant to order her to do anything, not now, not ever again. This isn't what she had wanted at all. "N-No, wait, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to -"

Pearl stares up at her with something lusting and playful and doting in her eyes, and only then, only  _then_ does Peridot realize that Pearl had only been teasing her.

"You're going to have to prove to me that you deserve it," Pearl says.

"I will," Peridot responds instantly, short of breath.

Pearl pries Peridot off of her, leaving Peridot to awkwardly hover over her as Pearl repositions herself so Peridot is in between her thighs rather than straddling her. Pearl spreads her legs, and now Peridot is able to cultivate the courage required to glance down, and her body engulfs itself in flames instantaneously. Pearl hadn't been lying when she said she wasn't dry.

"You like what you see, I'm assuming," Pearl says, with her signature charming smile.

"Understatement," Peridot replies. Pearl is wet because of  _her_ and the arousal in between Peridot's legs constricts tighter at the thought, and she knows she's soaked herself, her body begging to be touched, to be relieved, but - no. She's going to take care of Pearl first.

Peridot takes in a deep, anxious, stammering breath. And one set of fingers floats to the inside of Pearl's thighs, and she cups the slick flesh there, nervously eyeing Pearl's facial expression to make sure what she's doing is right. Pearl shuts her eyes and tips her head back, hips lifting into Peridot's fingers in apprehension.

 _Okay,_ Peridot says to herself in a pep talk,  _okay. We've got this. Pearl's going to adore me even more by the time we're through._

She slowly massages the skin there, two fingers dabbing into the slick underneath it and spreading it over Pearl's clit as lubricant, and Pearl rewards her with an astonished gasp that bleeds into a relieved moan, body arching off the bed sharply before melting back onto the mattress when she becomes accustomed to Peridot's light, gentle movements. Now that Pearl's used to it, hips thrusting slowly up against Peridot's fingers in rhythm with the circles Peridot rubs into her clit, Peridot takes it a step further, increasing the pressure she applies; one finger slides down a short distance, pushing into the hot flesh and the wetness without actually entering her, and one of Pearl's hands fly to cup over her mouth as she stifles her responding sound of pleasure.

"Can I…" Peridot says, unsure of how she wants to phrase this, the finger stroking Pearl in such a way that if she pressed in less than an inch more she'd be inside her. "I-I mean...Can I…?"

"You have no  _idea,_ " Pearl moans, "how long I've been waiting for you to ask me that."

Peridot blinks down at her. "That's...a yes, right?"

Pearl's half-lidded eyes meet hers, and she huffs a laugh that's saturated in her arousal. "That's more than a yes."

"Good," Peridot says breathlessly, cheeks flaming as she watches Pearl for any sign of distress, and she presses the finger into her, apprehensive at first, but Pearl makes this blissed out, watery little sound and pushes her hips up, taking in the rest of the finger by herself; it all happens very smoothly, the silky, warm metal of Peridot's finger sliding into the slicked opening with ease.

"Hang on a second," Peridot says, and she closes her eyes and concentrates on doing something, and Pearl whines and shoves her hips up again, wordlessly begging her to proceed. Peridot ignores her: she'll be more than pleased in a minute.

Pearl cries out, eyebrows pinching together in pleasure as she throws her head back and knots her fingers into the bedsheets, and the legs that had wound around Peridot's hips a moment ago loosen again as they spread. All in response to the electric  _bzz_ that Peridot's robotic fingers give off.

"Y-You," she gasps, "h-how are you - ?!"

"Modern gem tech is my weapon," Peridot reminds her, bending over her to kiss her once, hooking the finger inside her and rubbing her from the inside. "Doesn't mean I always have to use it as a weapon, though."

Pearl just closes her eyes again and whimpers a cracked noise of pleasure in response, her body trembling, hips rolling up to meet the rhythm of Peridot's fingers; Peridot nudges another one inside of her and sends a finger from her other arm to replace the finger on Pearl's clit, all digits vibrating as she pumps them inside of her, rubs the area above the opening, commandeers four other fingers to dote on her nipples. It is times like this where Peridot adores the multitasking capabilities that her limb enhancer fingers give her.

This leaves Peridot to hold herself up by the fingerless stumps of her arms, and she lays herself down so their bodies are pressed together, Peridot lifting her waist slightly so her fingers have room to do their jobs. She squirms down to attempt to emulate what Pearl had done to her earlier, licking Pearl's collarbone and then sucking at it, grazing her pointed teeth over the skin, then making her way upwards until she's lapping messily at Pearl's jawline.

Pearl is losing it.

Any inhibitions that she had had are dissolved, and she's crying out, hips stuttering in their movements, body arching and rolling, writhing, fingers twitching, her skin quaking; Peridot watches her like she's watching the gorgeous, plasmic birth of a star, and she feels something hot and slick drip onto the inside of her thigh: she's so turned on she feels like she's going to unravel and burst at the seams.

One of the vibrating fingers massaging Pearl's clitoris leaves to add a third finger to the inside of her, caressing her, finger fucking her, stretching her open. She hits the spot she had been looking for and Pearl. Pearl does this thing.

She cries out again, body arching with her inhuman flexibility, and her gem is emitting a low, dull glow, her skin glittering with particles of shimmering photons.

"Peridot," she says, and Peridot is awe-struck, because stars help her, Pearl is so beautiful, absolutely divine, outranking every white star and every nebula Peridot has ever seen,  _"Peridot."_ And the bed is swallowed in a wash of iridescent light and for a moment, Pearl's body glitches, and Peridot wonders if it's her physical projection unable to clutch onto corporeality as she orgasms.

Slickness trickles out onto Peridot's fingers as Pearl comes, her voice the only thing Peridot's aware of as she watches her, wide-eyed, almost feeling dirty for the way Pearl's beauty in this moment serves to add to her arousal. She dulls the vibrations, extracts her fingers, gently rubs Pearl through it until Pearl's body has stopped spasming, leaving her as a boneless, molten, panting entity on the bed.

"Woah," Peridot says. "That was, um. That was something."

A weak, fluttery sound gurgles from Pearl's lips.

Peridot stops the vibrations entirely and wipes the fingers that are coated in Pearl's lubricant on the bed sheets, near the already-existing wet spot. "Was that...satisfactory?"

Another incoherent noise of response. Peridot assumes it to be a yes. Several moments pass, and Peridot doesn't really know what to do with the silence so she kisses her, threading her fingers adoringly through Pearl's hair, pressing their warm bodies flush together. Pearl is for the most part unresponsive but Peridot feels her smile against her lips.

"Okay," Pearl murmurs, her voice glazed over in a haze Peridot has never heard from her before, "it's your turn."

Peridot's cheeks burn up all over again. "Y-Yes, um. My turn." She swallows thickly. "I...don't think I'm going to last very long, I'm warning you in advance."

"That's perfectly all right," Pearl says, and she shifts her body in such a way that they roll over onto their sides together; Pearl takes a moment to kiss the gem on Peridot's forehead and then roll them over again so she's on top of her. Peridot is spreading her legs for her before she registers that she's doing it.

"What are you comfortable with?" Pearl says softly, drowsily, as her fingers toy in between Peridot's legs, not getting her off but just touching her, running her fingers through the (humiliating amount of) wetness there.

It takes a moment for Peridot to process her question. "Uh," she says, "what am I...oh. Do whatever you want to me, Pearl. But...if you're going to go with penetration, be sparing. I'm not as into that as you apparently are."

"I won't do it at all, then," Pearl says, and she licks her fingers and they settle into a circular rhythm when they press onto Peridot's clit.

To her absolute mortification, Peridot comes almost instantly.

The feeling fireworks in between her legs, floods into her thighs, and Peridot's grasp on her motor controls evaporates as her body twists, robotic fingers clawing into Pearl's back until they twitch and convulse and scatter awry through the air when Peridot loses control over them. She cries out Pearl's name, her voice choked and shattering and mutilated in pleasure, and then when Pearl's name leaves her lips the second time, it melts into a low, sated moan. The impossible intensity of her orgasm fades slowly, not before it fills every crevice of her body, and by the time it leaves her, Peridot is a ecstasy-laden puddle of endorphins and serotonin and oxytocin. The green light that she had shed over the mattress dims until it blinks out entirely, and Peridot lays there, her breathing shallow, her body glowing with adoration for the gem on top of her, with the most pleasurable sort of ache she's ever felt.

Pearl is smiling as she cups Peridot's face between her hands and kisses her, slow and sweet and fueled by affection. "That was fast," she says.

"Shut up," Peridot mutters, not bothering to open her eyes as heat ignites under the skin of her face. "I told you it would be."

Pearl shifts so she's lying beside her, and Peridot turns onto her side as well, settling five overheated fingers on Pearl's hip, a satisfied half-smile forming on her face. "I enjoyed that," she says.

"Oh, Peridot," Pearl laughs, smiling stupidly as she nudges forward so their gems clink together with jolt of sugary electricity that courses through Peridot at the contact, "I love you."

* * *

 

Pearl emerges from the temple and Peridot's facial expression brightens instantaneously. "Pearl!" she says. "Hi!" They'd already spent all night together, Peridot staring at her for hours on end and intertwining their bare bodies as Pearl cuddled one of Peridot's warm, heated limb enhancers to her chest, proceeding to accidentally fall asleep, but it doesn't make the sight of her any less new and exciting. New because they're bonded now, like Ruby and Sapphire are sans the fusion. Exciting because she's Pearl.

"Peridot," Pearl replies, smiling warmly, and her obscene thoughts are obvious with the way her eyes take on their half-lidded, flirtatious expression. "Where were you this morning?"

"Wait," Steven says, "you guys started the morning together?"

Pearl's smile freezes on her face, her pupils shrinking.

Steven cocks his head. "Was fixing the TV really so difficult that it took you all night? I was gonna go in there and offer to help out, but Amethyst wouldn't let me."

"We are almost finished with the television," Peridot says, as Pearl continues to zone out in her mortification. "We became...distracted. Pearl had some other machinery tricks that she wanted to show me."

"Yes," Pearl says, "that's right. Now, Steven, why don't you go outside and grab the thunder orb I gave to you a couple days ago? From the mission? I think you put it in Lion's mane, but I'm going to be needing it today."

"Sure thing, Pearl," Steven says, leaving through the front door. "See you, Peridot!"

"Goodbye," Peridot replies flatly as she watches him leave. She turns to Pearl. "I apologize for leaving you this morning. I had promised Steven I would let him teach me how to play one of his...games...this morning."

Pearl crosses her arms and smiles. "And how'd that go?"

"About how you'd expect."

Pearl walks from behind the couch to around it so she can sit next to Peridot, and Peridot slings one arm around her shoulders on impulse. "Yesterday," Pearl says, "was incredible. I just wanted to let you know. And I don't just mean the..." She trails off and clears her throat into her fist. "I mean everything. I mean you."

Peridot glances at the floor. "I feel the same," she says.

"But before I invest too much into this," Pearl says, and she blushes, her smile fading as her features soften. She places one hand on the metal of Peridot's arm. "I need to know something. I need to know how serious you are about this."

Peridot blinks at her, unprocessing. "What are you talking about?"

"I..." Pearl is staring at the floor. "You're serious about me, right?"

Oh.  _Oh._ "What? Of course I'm serious. I - I've never - Pearl." Her fingers float together, all pointing towards her. "I am very, very fond of you. And gems...aren't meant to fall in love only to fall out of it, right? We're monogamous. I believe that the closest Earth counterpart is known as 'mating for life.' We aren't  _humans._ "

Pearl's eyes drift to the portrait above the doorway. Peridot is electrocuted by the realization of her error. "W-Wait, I mean, there are some exceptions, I suppose -"

"No," Pearl interrupts, "you're right." She smiles sadly at Rose, then closes her eyes. "Gems tend to have only one soulmate. It is why Ruby and Sapphire will never split up. It is why Rose Quartz gave up her life to give Greg Universe something beautiful, something that was a part of them both; she was never meant for me, nor was I meant for her." She's clutching tightly onto the limb enhancer now, her lips trembling in a smile, and she wipes something from her eye. "It is how I know you're serious. I'm sorry that I asked at all."

"Don't be sorry," Peridot says. "I...hey, I'm still learning about the complexity of gem emotions myself." She offers her a shy smile. "Maybe we can...continue to learn together?"

Pearl's eyes flick from Rose to Peridot. "Together," she agrees.


End file.
